1. NII Open House

On April 1, 2016, Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS) has started "Center for Open Data in the Humanities (CODH)." This center aims at promoting open research infrastructure in the humanities, and stimulating data-driven approaches in the humanities, or digital humanities, through collaborative research on large scale open data from National Institute of Japanese Literature and others. The poster discusses the direction of new humanities research exemplified by projects such as Digital Silk Road.

Big Data-Based Disaster Reduction, and the Role of Humans and Machines

How to Make the Most of Big Data in Disaster Reduction?

Asanobu KITAMOTO

A number of disasters in Japan and other places in the world motivate people to explore the potential of information technology for disaster reduction. Challenges need to be solved, however, to realize big data-based disaster reduction, such as analytics for situational awareness from big data, and open environment for data sharing. In the near future, moreover, the development of artificial intelligence is going to stimulate discussion on the division of roles between humans and machines for disaster information. The poster discusses the direction of big data-based disaster reduction exemplified by projects such as Digital Typhoon, GeoNLP and BDD.

Development of an open source toponym information system "GeoNLP" and its application to risk response

Asanobu Kitamoto

Basic information for responding to disasters is what happened at where and on when, but most of the communication during disasters is ambiguous due to an unstructured form of natural language text. This is a major barrier for a machine-based large-scale data processing, and our solution is to develop a toponym-based information system called GeoNLP. This system aims at the automatic extraction of "where" or toponyms through the reduction of ambiguity in text. What kind of information can we get from GeoNLP? I will introduce the result of analysis on various types of media and risk-related information.

Toward new discoveries in humanistic research using the analysis, integration and visualization of data

Digital humanities: informatics for humanities in the data-centric age

GeoNLP: Software environment for the geo-tagging of natural language text

Asanobu Kitamoto

Finding and mapping place names automatically from text has a great need, and this technology is especially powerful when the situation needs to be recognized quickly under crisis. Based on geographic information systems (GIS) and natural language processing (NLP), we develop a geo-tagging software GeoNLP to annotate text with place tags, and establish the infrastructure of toponym information systems with a portal site for sharing place names.

Recognition and communication on the crisis of the society

Crisis Informatics

Asanobu KITAMOTO

How informatics can contribute to the crisis of the society, such as natural disasters like typhoons and earthquakes, or man-made disasters like nuclear disasters? We investigate how big data should be used for the acquisition, analysis, communication and presentation of crisis-related information.

Today our lives could be affected by a variety of natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes, in addition to other disasters such as nuclear disasters, and people are now seeking ways to obtain information to survive crises. How can we improve our response to crises through information acquisition, processing, dissemination, and presentation? The poster discusses potential contribution from informatics, which is based on the variety of massive amount of data.

The purpose of Digital Silk Road Project is to digitize the cultural heritage of Silk Road, and realize information infrastructure as web sites for researchers and the general public to search and learn. How digitization transforms research on cultural heritage? As an example, we present our recent results on the construction of Silk Road historical ruins database, to share the new result of discovering historical ruins using digitized old maps.

Japanese society of 2011 has been shaken by the tremendous impact of Tohoku Earthquake. Now, what informatics can do for natural disasters? We introduce our research projects on typhoons such as Digital Typhoon and Isewan Typhoon Memories 2009, and present our preliminary report about Tohoku Earthquake project.

Rediscover cultural heritage in the digital space

Digital Silk Road Project: Digital Archive of Cultural Heritage

Asanobu Kitamoto, Yoko Nishimura, Kinji Ono

The purpose of Digital Silk Road Project is to digitize the cultural heritage of Silk Road, and realize information infrastructure as web sites for researchers and the general public to search, learn and enjoy. By using a new "excavation" method, what can we rediscover from cultural heritage in the digital space? We present our recent results on a new method for discovering historical ruins from digitized historical maps, the construction of Silk Road historical ruins database, and the exhibition at Toyo Bunko digital museum.

The stream of information generated from sensors and people on the earth is getting stronger. The research challenge in the future is to design the nervous system of "Digital Earth" for taking in the stream of information, integrating and processing information in the digital space, and making appropriate responses. We present the results of Digital Typhoon and Data Integration and Analysis (DIAS) as examples of database integration projects on earth environmental data.

Excavate the Silk Road in Digital Space

Digital Silk Road Project: Digital Archive of Cultural Heritage

Asanobu Kitamoto, Yoko Nishimura, Kinji Ono

The purpose of Digital Silk Road Project is to digitize the cultural heritage of Silk Road, and realize information infrastructure as web sites for researchers and the general public to search, learn and enjoy. What kind of information can we draw from cultural heritage in the past using a new "excavation" method in the digital space? We introduce our results such as a method for searching historical ruins using digitized historical maps, and the construction of Silk Road historical ruins database.

To offer solutions to problems related to the environment of the Earth, it is necessary to design an adaptive information infrastructure that provides earth observation and social data chosen to follow the change of the real world. For this purpose, this presentation summarizes three projects for the integration of earth environmental data -- 1) Digital Typhoon, 2) Vertical Earth, 3) Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS), and shows demonstrations focusing on how we can connect the digital Earth with the real Earth.

Discovery from the digitization of cultural heritage

Digital Silk Road Project: Digital Archive of Cultural Heritage

Asanobu Kitamoto, Kinji Ono, Yoko Nishimura, Mohammad Daoud

Digital Silk Road Project aims at improving accessibility to the cultural heritage of Silk Road by the digitization of objects, and by the construction of a Web platform in which scholars and the general public can study, learn and enjoy. An important question is - what did we discover from digitization? We will introduce the advantage of digitization and the acquisition of knowledge with a focus on Toyo Bunko Digital Archive of Rare Books and the analysis of historical maps along Silk Road.

To produce solutions to the environmental problems of the earth, it is important to construct an information infrastructure in which various earth observation data obtained from various disciplines for various purposes are integrated for usage. This presentation introduces, with demonstrations, the goal of three projects that the author has been involved in, namely 1) Digital Typhoon, 2) Vertical Earth, 3) Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS).

Digital Silk Road Project (http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/) makes the cultural heritage of Silk Roads accessible on the Website through digitization and realizes information environment in which scholars and the general public can study, learn and enjoy. The demonstration includes Toyo Bunko Digital Archive of Rare Books, the 3D reconstitution of the Citadel of Bam (Iran), browsing and utilization of old maps along Silk Road, and various types of participatory digital archive systems.

"Digital Typhoon" (http://www.digital-typhoon.org/) and "Typhoon Front" (http://front.eye.tc/) are two Websites working together as large-scale databases and participatory media specialized in typhoons. The core of "Digital Typhoon" is satellite typhoon images for 26 years since 1981, and the core of "Typhoon Front" is real-time information collected from bloggers around the world. The future of information system is discussed based on the observation of connecting large-scale databases archiving the past and participatory media capturing the present.

Browse through the Cultural Heritage of Silk Roads in the Digital Space

Digital Silk Roads Project (http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/) makes the cultural heritage of Silk Roads accessible on the Website through digitization to realize information environment in which scholars and the general public can study, learn and enjoy. The demonstration includes Toyo Bunko Digital Archive of Rare Books, the 3D reconstitution of the Citadel of Bam (Iran), overlaying old maps on Google Earth, and movies of Bamiyan (Afghanistan).

Let's Use a Free Toll "Dictionpedia" for the Creation and Release of Dictionaries

Dictionpedia: A Tool for the Creation and Release of Dictionaries

Akiko AIZAWA, Asanobu KITAMOTO

Dictionpedia is an environment for creating, exchanging, and customizing glossaries. Dictionpedia consists of (i) dictool, a tool for editing glossaries with enhanced functions such as post-order sort and entry term registration, and (ii) dicsync, a tool for synchronizing dictool with MediaWiki for the publication of edited glossaries. Dictionpedia is freely downloadable from the project’s website http://dictionpedia.ex.nii.ac.jp/.

Wiki is a widespread community site tool that allows users to freely create and edit Wiki pages on the Web browser. In this research, MediaWiki, a Wiki engine being used to run the Wikipedia and also other encyclopedia and dictionary sites, is extended to enable the writing of labeled links. This extension enables Wiki to write and manage RDF statements.

A lot of antaritc Bryophyta are being kept as a cryopreservation or as dry specimens for academic research in Japan, assuming that these specimens are valuable. It is extremely difficult to obtain the valuable type specimens for identification or academic pursuits. Digital Pictures of Bryophyta are taken with a high digital microscope and are rendered for 3D. In addition, it introduces "New generation biotechnology portal"

Digital Typhoon (http://www.digital-typhoon.org/) aims at realizing near real-time large-scale earth databases by integrating heterogeneous data streams such as imagery, text, and other earth observation data. This presentation evaluates the current system in terms of association, organization and retrieval of various data streams, and the construction and utilization of past cases contained in the databases. We also summarize the future extension of the system.

We are promoting the digital archives of the culture and the natural heritage which is on the verge of destruction or disappearance as part of a "digital Silk Road" project. The research of the digital archive of the Toyo Bunko rare book, development of a Bamiyan digital museum were conducted in cooperation with human sciences researchers. Development of the DSR portal for creation and dissemination of contents and information on "digital Silk Road Project ", and two international symposium of Digital silk Roads, the digital archive training of a cultural heritage in Azerbaijan: one of the RADIT countries have been carried out. This exhibition reports focusing on 3-dimensional digital restoration of the destroyed ruins of Bam and ASPICO portal in a "digital Silk Road project"

The Digital Archive of Rare Books that Promotes the Research and Education of Culture

We present the "Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books." We have collaboration with Toyo Bunko, or the Oriental Library, that owns rare books-- academic references, photo albums, and others known as basic references on Silk Roads. The goal of the project is to make all pages of rare books digitized and freely accessible on the Website. We also introduce a few trials for promoting research and education on Silk Road culture using the information infrastructure of digital rare books.

Digital Typhoon: An Environment for Multi-faceted Information Interpretations by the Fusion of Latest News and Large-Scale Databases

KITAMOTO Asanobu

Digital Typhoon (http://www.digital-typhoon.org) is a Web site to help users reach multi-faceted interpretations of information through the fusion of latest typhoon news and large-scale typhoon databases. This presentation introduces the basic philosophy and the design of the system from three components (1) real-time acquisition of information, (2) databases of past cases for the foundation of interpretations, (3) an interface for information navigation.

The Digital Silk Roads Project, conducted at NII in cooperation with UNESCO from 2001, is overviewed and major achievements of the DSR Project are presented. In addition our new approach to build the Database of Buddhist Stone caves in the Silk Road such as DUNHUANG Caves will be demonstrated. Major Achievements of the DSR Project are: ・ International Symposium for Digital Silk Roads in Tokyo 2001 and Nara 2003 ・ Digital archiving of rare books of Toyo Bunko ・ The prototype Bamiyan Virtual Museum ・ ASPCO Portal ・Southeast Asian Interactive Atlas 500-1500 C.E. ・NII Image Museum for the National Cultural Heritage Online System ・ DSR Portal and 3D-VR restoration of the Citadel of Bam ・ Seminars of Digital Silk Roads for Silk Road countries.

We introduce "Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books" that has been developed within the Digital Silk Roads Project. This presentation discusses the basic philosophy and the detail of image processing, multilingual text processing, and indexing/searching with a demonstration using the web site (http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko), freely available to anyone. We also present the application of the digital archive to research and education.

An Environment for teachers of History to create digital card-index notes

DEUFF Dominique,
KITAMOTO Asanobu

Teachers have an important role to play in the way of improving the use of computers in the classroom. We think that getting better use of computers in classrooms should be reached progressively in two phases: in the first phase, the teacher should get familiar with information technology tools, and in a second phase, he uses them with students in the classroom. Learning implies linking to knowledge already acquired. Therefore, as teachers are learners in our study, our approach should follow structures already established and enable teachers to understand what digital environments are, using their actual way of working. Based on this consideration, our work focuses on setting up an environment close to the current teachers’ didactical tasks so that they can freely keep writing and managing their lessons. For the requirement analysis of such an environment we interviewed teachers. The poster introduces results of these interviews and current work regarding metadata for describing teacher's own card-index notes.

Bio-portal is a 3-years project to construct portal site for various biology and biotechnology related data and databases. We are planning to develop user-freindly interface for students and teachers as well as researchers.

Construction of Tokyo Bunko Valuable Books Multimedia Digital Archive

YAMAMOTO Takeo, KITAMOTO Asanobu,
SATO Sonoko, ONO Kinji

Valuable books held by Tokyo Bunko, which is one of the five major oriental study libraries in the world, was organized into a multimedia database and made multilingually accessible from the Web. Technologies used in organizing the digital archive, including Multilingual Annotation Support System ( MASS ), are described.

X-informatics: Informatics in the Age of Large-Scale Database Technology

KITAMOTO Asanobu

What is X-informatics? What is new, and how informatics will change from the idea? The author summarizes these points with the result of projects that the author is involved in for these past few years with the aim of building large-scale image database portals on earth science data and cultural heritage data. The author also introduces research results on database navigation/ retrieval and data mining worked on those real-world databases.

NII launched the Digital Silk Roads Project in corporation with UNESCO as an international joint research project at NII in April 2001. In December 2001, the Tokyo symposium was jointly organized by NII and UNESCO. The Tokyo Declaration was issued. The second international symposium for Digital Silk Roads Project was held at Nara in December 2003. A memorandum of understanding ( MOU ) between UNESCO and NII was signed by the Director Generals of UNESCO and NII. The Digital Silk Roads Initiative Framework ( DDSRIF ) was set up under MOU to undertake a coordination mechanism for promoting the Project.
Bamiyan Remains in Afghan before the blasting were archived as Bamiyan Digital Museum. Digital archiving of various historical documents in the possession of the Oriental Library ( Tokyo Bunko ) in Tokyo was carried out. An Advanced Scientific Portal for International Cooperation on the DSR ( ASPICO-DSR ) to provide the platform for collaboration of Digital Silk Roads Study was developed.

In various scientific disciplines, the construction and utilization of comprehensive and large-scale scientific databases is now recognized as one of the standard style of scientific research. This presentation focuses on this type of ""scientific research based on large-scale database infrastructure"" from the viewpoint of informatics, and gives a brief outline of our project, ""Digital Typhoon Project,"" as a case study of this research style for meteorological applications. The presentation introduces research results on ""image data mining from large-scale scientific databases"" with specific topics such as probabilistic modeling, data visualization and contentbased image retrieval, in addition to the demonstration of our system for typhoon image mining.